The following came up yesterday, playing with the bots.
Matchpoints, nobody vul, you are the dealer, you hold:
8
AT
9632
AKQJ83
Presumably you open 1
, partner responds 1
, and now? It's a pretty good hand, I would not quarrel with 3
, but I settled for 2
. Now partner bid 2
.
Uncontested:
1
- 1
2
- 2
Now what? I suppose partner can make 2
so I could pass, but it seems possible there are at least 8 tricks in NT. So I tried 2NT. Pard pulls to
:
1
- 1
2
- 2
2NT - 3
How pushy do I want to be? Pard presumably has six
and at least three
. Moreover, I have only two
and the opponents have not been in the auction so he probably has few
. Maybe this makes 5
? Or maybe not? I'll try.
1
- 1
2
- 2
2NT - 3
4
.
Partner passed so I am in 4
.
I am confident that Joe agrees with 4
being passable here. My 2 !c and my 2NT were both passable, so 4
is not a forcing slam try, it's an invitation. (Joe and I had a similar situation in one of the lesson hands, hence my confidence he agrees. He might well disagree with my choosing to bid 4 !c, but I doubt he treats it as forcing.)
Now let's look at both hands:
AKT654
876
8
962
8
AT
9632
AKQJ83
Looking at both hands, where do you want to play this? 3NT would be good if they cannot take the first five
tricks. If they can run five
tricks then you can make +120 in 2NT. But probably +130 in 4
and this is mps. But maybe 5
? Or maybe not?
Lunch time, I'll give the result later.